Green-Ellis hopes his first career fumble was his last

Bengals running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis did something on Sunday that he had never done before in his five-year NFL career: He fumbled.

Green-Ellis, who played four years for the Patriots before signing with the Bengals this year, had touched the ball 589 times in his career before his first fumble on Sunday against the Redskins. In an interview on Pro Football Talk on NBC Sports Network, Green-Ellis told Erik Kuselias that ball security has long been a priority.

“Keeping the ball high and tight and close to my body, and try not to put myself in situations where the defense can strip the ball away,” Green-Ellis said. “Unfortunately, on Sunday, I dropped the ball.”

In another interview today, with Trey Wingo on ESPN, Green-Ellis said he’s disappointed in himself for fumbling, but confident he can go the rest of his career without another fumble.

“Just not very good ball security,” Green-Ellis said. “Not two hands on contact. The guy came up and he stripped it out, and those things happen when you don’t take care of the ball. I let down my teammates, let down the whole Bengals organization. It’s something that I hope never happens again.”

For most running backs, the idea that a fumble could be something that never happens again would be crazy. But with the emphasis Green-Ellis has always put on job security, perhaps it’s possible.

Green-Ellis’s streak of 589 touches without fumbling was the longest streak at the start of a player’s NFL career since the NFL began keeping fumbles as an individual statistic in 1945. Now Green-Ellis can get to work on a new streak and aim for LaDainian Tomlinson’s all-time record of 712 consecutive touches between fumbles.

True, but BJGE hasn’t been a slouch either. He’s averaged 4 yards a carry throughout his career and scores a touchdown every 18 carries.

Tomlinson averaged an extra foot per carry and scored a td every 22 carries on average. He certainly carried much more volume than BJGE but he also had to learn ball handling, racking up 18 fumbles in his first 6 years.

Green-Ellis had to fight for playing time as an UDFA and didn’t get the ball given to him as much as Tomlinson did in his first few years but he’s made every carry count, with zero fumbles from the time he was a rookie until now.

True test of how great of a person and teammate a guy is: there isn’t a Pats fan I know of who doesn’t want this guy to succeed or at least wish him well even though he’s not on our team anymore. I love me some Benny…always will.